ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



417 



THE SHORT-NOSED GAR. 



males and were delivered at the Aquarium by 

 the fishermen for about $25 apiece. Females 

 of the same size would cost two or three times 

 as much on account of the valuable roe the}- 

 contain, which is salted and sold as "caviar" 

 — a large specimen would contain from three 

 to five good-sized pails of eggs. Stui-geon 

 flesh is usually sold as "smoked sturgeon." 



Our sturgeon fisheries on the Atlantic and 

 Pacific coasts and in the Great Lakes have 

 been declining for many years through over- 

 fishing, and fish-cultural science has as yet 

 afforded little help in their restoration on ac- 

 count of difficulties met with in the process 

 of artificial impregnation of the eggs. 



Fifteen or twenty years ago the yield of 

 the American sturgeon fishery exceeded ten 

 million pounds, while at 

 the present time the quan- 

 tity is little more than a 

 million pounds. These fig- 

 ures do not include the 

 "caviar" annually made 

 from sturgeon eggs, which 

 in some sections of the 

 country equals the flesh of 

 the sturgeon in value. 



The two species frequent- 

 ing Atlantic rivers are the 

 large stui'geon, ( Acipenser 

 sfin'io^ , and the short-nosed 

 sturgeon, (A. brcviros- 

 tris), a small species sel- 



dom used for food. The 

 large sturgeon of the Great 

 Lakes region and the upper 

 Mississippi River, (A.rubi- 

 cundus), is a species of 

 great commercial impor- 

 tance, attaining a length of 

 six feet. It inhabits also 

 the interior lakes of Can- 

 ada. All of these species 

 are kept on exhibition at 

 the Aquarium. 



There are two species 

 which enter the Pacific 

 Coast rivers ; the white 

 sturgeon, (A. transmon- 

 tanus), and the green stur- 

 geon, (A.medirostris). The 

 white sturgeon attains a 

 length of thirteen feet and a weight of 1000 

 pounds. It is connnon in the Frazer and 

 Columbia Rivers, ascending the latter as far 

 as the Snake River in Idaho. 



The only other American species is the 

 shovel-nosed sturgeon, ( Scaphirhynchus 

 phdorliynchus ) , inhabiting the ^Mississippi 

 River. It seldom exceeds four feet in length. 

 All the Atlantic and Pacific species are 

 migratory, entering rivers and estuaries in 

 the spring and summer to spawn. The two 

 inland species never leave their fresh-water 

 habitat. The large Atlantic sturgeon at- 

 tains a length of ten feet and a weight of 500 

 pounds. It occurs from Maine to Florida, 

 the center of abundance being the Delaware 

 River, where the principal fishei'ies are locat- 



THE LAKE STURGEON. 



